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sol1056 · 6 years ago

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three anons: what the hell was all that in S7

Picking out the three that are most to the point for this answer, but I’ve got another dozen or so that overlap. Not sure I’ll have time/energy to answer the rest individually, so hopefully this meta will be sufficient.

I mean it could be that they had different execs back then who were better at their jobs and kept Shiro around. No one disliked black paladin Shiro, even the DotU fans were ok with it, and the writing in s1-2 was mostly very good. Changing all that was a bad idea. I would have left on the spot if Shiro died or was benched, like now, I'm only around for closure. Maybe they were different execs with this decision & the EPs leaped at the chance. Well, we know who's also gonna be in trouble if that's the case.

With your theory on how storyboards were reused and characters shuffled around for cost cutting, might this not also partly explain the Adam flashback scene and how it was staged? I mean, they were originally supposed to be roommates and the scene was meant to appear in season 2 but got cut. What if they just reused the storyboard (or even animation, if it was already mostly done) the way it was and then just changed the dialogue? This could explain the lack of intimacy in the staging, too. Ezor and Zethrids interactions were more openly intimate maybe not (just) because they‘re villains who die immediately after, but because the decision to make them an item came before storyboarding was done, so the staging is more suggestive. I mean, if you think Shiro was mostly pasted in in the first half of s7, that might make sense.

If cost was the issue and they already had the black paladin Shiro version written, and got the greenlight to change it to Keith then things don't add up. Because they changed it once more! Which could have been avoided if they stuck to the Shiro one. And it goes without saying it would be better written to follow canon instead of the mess we got, like, I cant imagine this NOT discussed. So if it wouldn't be cost effective to change it again for Keith and it would be badly written, why did it happen?

Behind the cut: the most likely chronology of revisions, the clues in S7 as to its original form, and what this means for S8 and the Black Paladin position.

This is everything I’ve been able to figure out between interviews, podcasts, tweets, plus researching the industry and a few reality-checks with friends more familiar. As always, any mistakes are my own.

version 0: "five teenagers"

This would’ve been the first pitch after getting the green light, and probably only a loose synopsis, with just the pilot given a rough storyboard. A post-apocalyptic Earth conquered by the Galra, who are seeking Blue. The execs rejected JDS' mechanism for the discovery of Blue, in favor of simply having Keith ‘sense’ Blue. The execs also rejected the idea that Shiro would die only a few episodes in. This summary seems to be the basis of the "five teenagers" part of the teaser.

version A: "shiro kicks the bucket"

Timelines would've dictated moving onto an outline pretty quickly, detailed down to the episode level, including bits of dialogue, motifs, turning points or emotional beats. In this revision, Shiro dies/leaves at the end of S2 and does not return. This is the “originally we wanted him to kick the bucket” version, which the execs rejected.

version B: "shiro goes away for awhile"

If I'm interpreting the hints correctly, the "does Shiro die or not" question got tossed back and forth all the way into S1/S2 pre-production. Rather than rearrange everything, the easiest fix would've been to leave most of the story intact and write only a new ending where Shiro returns. The execs reject this rewrite, saying Shiro can’t be gone that long. This is the “we tried to just have him gone for awhile, but the execs said he had to come back sooner” version.

version C: "enter the clone"

Again, easiest fix is to insert Shiro/Kuron, remove Keith, and reverse that just before Shiro's return in version B. This impacts only the middle seasons (S3-S6); the clone compromise satisfies the execs. Kuron's characterization makes a lot more sense if it’s Keith, in visuals (ie Kuron leaning against the wall in Keith fashion), dialogue (fighting with Lance), and action (leaving without consulting the team). It's also why no one mentions Keith's absence. Because in the original version A, Keith was standing right there.

version D: "wtf is going on", aka Season 7

When JDS mentions having a full season written with Shiro as Black Paladin, it didn't make sense how they'd have a script and not use it. With @ptw30's visual detective work, I think I may've figured it out.

Technical notes: first scripts are all written for a season, then voices are recorded, and then the combined script+recording is used to storyboard. Production seasons are 26-episodes, independent of actual broadcast seasons; VA may be recording scenes across two 13-episode seasons completely out of order, since the recording schedule's going to be based on who's available, not chronology of the file numbers. The biggest staff changes are usually in April ('staffing season') when new shows get the greenlight and start sharking around to catch writers, designers, directors, etc.

In March of this year, S5 was released. At least some of the storyboarders were released in time for staffing season; in April, Hedrick moves to a new project. With S7/S8 being unchanged since version B, I suspect Hedrick delivered the scripts for S7 and S8 by winter of last year, at latest. Even that would be tight, since that's expecting animation to deliver 26 episodes in an 8-month timeframe. [edit: probably delivered much earlier, given the studio leaks show images we can recognize from S7/S8, so some amount of these seasons were in production by then.]

In June, S6 dropped, and a week later, Hamilton was announced as the new story editor via the Lets Voltron podcast. With the lead time required in production, there doesn't seem to be any reason to even need a story editor, at this point. All the pre-production work should be done.

In August, S7 dropped. Hedrick's editor credit is only for the first half of the season; Hamilton gets it for the second half. That means the last six episodes were written after Hedrick's departure. (May Chan's S2 script was reused in part, and she gains a belated co-writing script credit for that. Hedrick should've received the same; it's standard.)

Let's recap a few things we know (and a few we can intuit) about S7:

The season was already written with Shiro returning as Black Paladin, possibly also recorded and storyboarded.

S6 reversed the S4-S5 trend, lending strength to exec arguments that Shiro is necessary in the story.

After S6 dropped, the EPs said the wolf's name was a spoiler. See this post from @pwt30; tl;dr is that perhaps the EPs intended the wolf to be Shiro's spirit.

Despite Shiro's return, he's absent for the majority of the first half; when he is present, he barely speaks a half-dozen words, and none are plot-relevant. See @ptw30's post for more details.

There's a glaring incontinuity when Allura says the paladin armor protected the team, yet Shiro is frozen with the other non-paladins despite wearing armor.

Keith never offers for Shiro to pilot, nor mentions it, nor even seems to consider it an issue.

Not everything dovetails since I don't have the full picture, but here's my theory: S7 was originally outlined with Shiro's spirit in the wolf, rather than Black. I have no idea when/how JDS would've thought up the CA:WS parallels for his sole writing credit, but Shiro's "I died" and Lotor's psychotic breakdown are squeezed into S6E6, which was written by Josh Hamilton, Hedrick's later replacement. The only other Shiro-in-Black point is a few minutes at the end of S6's final episode. Shifting from Shiro-in-wolf to Shiro-in-Black really only affects one episode, with a bit of editing for another.

Anyway, S6 ends version C, and we segue to version B. For the first half of S7, the clone's body may have been in stasis while the team traveled through its various non-adventures. The episode we now know as S7E1 may have been the mid-point, with about six episodes of Shiro being unconcious. After watching the numbers drop from S3 to S6, the execs may've rejected another six episodes of where-is-Shiro and insisted he come back ASAP.

S7 only has two episodes that must be in order; the rest are pretty rearrangeable. All they had to do was insert Shiro into the background and record a few lines. (Several lines are pure voice-over, which also saves cost/time by not needing to animate moving mouth.) But the moved episode is only his memory/awakening, and the logical next episode would be Shiro's reconnection, and the rest of the season would roll from there. Without moving the entire second half of the season to the start, moving only his awakening episode would mean Shiro does nothing for 5-6 episodes and then abruptly reconnects.

In a recent interview, JDS said at first the execs weren't enthused until JDS talked up the new mecha they'd give Shiro to captain. Honestly, there's no way JDS got to be EP without giving a really good pitch, but there may've been another element to his argument: nostalgia. The EPs seem certain everyone suffers from their same nostalgia dementia, which if you do, then you probably have been waiting for any glimpse of that og!Keith. If Shiro returns at the start of S7, then Keith's time in Black has been limited to a few disastrous episodes in S3, and a single big battle in S6. The beginning of S7 is the only time we'd ever see the Voltron84 formation working as a unified team, and returning Shiro too soon would defeat the whole purpose of showing how the team has grown in his absence.

The solution seems to have been to remove Shiro's reconnection completely, and keep Keith in Black. That would mean re-recording Shiro's lines from the midpoint onward, and editing in Keith over Shiro. The savings would be that only half the seaon would have to be reworked, not all. The loose end of the space wolf --- an artifact of version B --- was left in place.

What I'm not sure of is whether the following are significant enough changes to warrant removing Hedrick's name and replacing it with Hamilton's. It could be, if supervising the revision process is enough to override the previous credits. I have no idea about that part of the industry, and it's the kind of edge case you're just not going to find a lot of blog posts about, so if you know, tell me. Otherwise, your guess is as good as mine.

Anyway, this would've meant Shiro was switched in for Allura, Allura was put back in a lion, and Keith was switched in for Shiro. This would explain why Shiro speaks as the leader of Voltron despite no longer being a paladin, and the uneasy sensations a lot of people got about the characterizations. It was most striking in the last three episodes: Shiro felt like Allura v2, while Keith felt like Shiro v2. And that further, the Altean-Earthian ship just 'lighting up' for Shiro --- and becoming that oversized white mecha --- may've meant as Allura's fourth (fifth?) deus ex machina.

I'd be willing to bet that mid-battle, Allura repeated her stunt from the end of S2, heading out to destroy Sendak's crystal by herself. She wouldn't need Sam to hack her brain, and then we'd also have a call back to when she got knocked down by the crystal-ball thing on Naxzela. If she was the one meant to go toe-to-toe with Sendak, that would explain the bizarre neutrality of Sendak's words --- he says nothing personal to Shiro, at all --- and the even more bizarre silence on Shiro's part. Allura's words wouldn't fit Shiro, so he's silent.

And lastly, it'd mean that the one leaping out of Black to cut down Sendak wouldn't have been Keith. It would've been Shiro.

Where would the story go from here?

If I look at the events of S7, the first half is terribly disjointed, really. If Shiro was supposed to wake at the midpoint, an episode (or two) is missing. One for him to reconnect with Black, and a second that would provide some minor conflict to settle him back into position. Those two episodes were likely replaced with the unexpected and frankly over-told two-parter of the Earth flashbacks.

Two problems with that, one technical, one structural.

First, the flashback two-parter has a lot of moving parts. Brand-new designs, characters, and backdrops. It's far too elaborate to be done in an ultra-compressed timeframe, not without several heart attacks and therapy bills on the part of the animation staff. (Plus, the US-based storyboarding team is already downsized, so fewer hands to do the work.)

Second, it doesn't make a lot of structural sense, especially against the big revelations in S6 of an existing Altean colony. Within the story, there's no reason to halt everything and travel across the universe to take however long to build a new castle, when the Altean colony question is far more pressing. Returning to earth also violates the structure, because it's really just a standard milieu: start on earth, head out to have adventures, and return home at the end.

But here, they're returning home and then possibly leaving again. That's just... a rather peculiar and imbalanced way to do it. It doesn't help that doing so means literally telling Romelle her people are just gonna have to rot, the paladins are certain they need the castle more. Why would you take one of the more compelling storylines you've come up with, only to background it again, and wreck the traditional bookending milieu structure at the same time? Especially if that means coming up with major set-pieces and brand-new designs in the space of several months, after a chunk of your core staff are already onto other things.

I think those two flashback episodes -- and the rewritten finale episodes --- may've been cribbed from S8. In other words, the second half of S7 was the original end of S8. That would mean repurposing already-created storyboards and animation artifacts, so there's a huge time savings there (not counting the need to re-record voices and edit the visuals to match the changed-around parts).

[note: if there’s anywhere you want to frontload introductions for the spin-off, it’d be in the final season, not the penultimate season. Here it feels like a big honking distraction, rather than an organic segue into the next iteration.]

That change necessitated that utterly bizarro mecha that appeared out of nowhere with the most ridiculously impeccable timing. There needed to be a reason to pull the team back out to space to deal with Haggar and/or the alt-Alteans and/or Lotor or whomever else it turns out to be.

So... where we go from here depends on when S8 gets released, because that’ll tell us how much they did (or did not) edit the episodes. Another clue will be whose name gets listed as head editor for an episode; if we see Hedrick’s name reappear at the top, we’ll know we’re dealing with episodes that are enough unrevised to qualify as being Hedrick-edited, that it’s a version B episode.

My expectation? They’ll move Shiro’s reconnection to the first part of S8, and add an episode or edit pieces of another, to blend it into what would’ve been the first half of S8 (probably with filler to mask the gap). Then add an episode to segue into the version B finale of S7, where we’d end with the original VLD lineup. With the time needed for animation, that’d be the easiest (if potentially awkward) way to repurpose as much as possible of existing artifacts.

If we don’t get S8 in the next 1-2 months, though, all bets are off, and there’s a much greater possibility that the entire final season is being redone from scratch. I’d expect Keith to stay in Black, in that case, but I’m always willing to be pleasantly surprised.

edited to add: see this followup for another detail that supports the reversed-seasons theory

#vld #voltron #analysis #story structure #television production #come for the sugar stay for the salt #sol thinks about stuff

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fire-bear · 7 years ago

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A, E-G, I-K, N, P-Z? sooo basically most of them :'D

Why do you do this to me? ;A; I never read any of the questions before I post, urgh.

Right.

A. If you could rec a piece of music to accompany one of your fics, what would you pick? Why?

Uh. Well I know that Dance For Me has a song. I had the idea and the title and began writing before I needed a song and went looking. This is what I found:

youtube

E. Who’s your favorite main character you’ve written?

Arthur. Or APH England. He’s the easiest for me to write for some reason.

But I like my OC from my novel, Benrial. He’s pretty easy to write because, after thinking about it, he’s a more confident, more fun and just better version of me.

F. What stories are you planning for the future?

Well. I’m in the middle of writing my Christmas one-shots. I’ve counted and there’s 15. (I’m supposed to start posting them on Wednesday cause it’s twelve days till Christmas then - unless I counted wrong which is highly likely. Urgh, numbers.)

Then I’m gonna do this thing cause I wanna write more Voltron stuff but I have too many things started and not enough time, dammit!

After that, it’s Hunk’s birthday and I’m gonna do one-shot birthday things for all the paladins! ... Even if Shiro technically has no birthday... They’ll all be different birthdays from different universes. For instance, Hunk’s will be from a soulmate AU. Actually, I’ll just tell you all of them’s since I’m excited: Shiro’s will be canonverse because canon Shiro needs a break. Pidge’s will be a chat AU and... I’m not sure how I’ll do in that cause I’ve not done one like that before that I can recall... Lance’s birthday is in a fantasy AU where it’s his destiny (along with Hunk and Pidge and Keith) to save the kingdom but there’s a misunderstanding and angsty hurt and the Galra catch him and, well. Keith gets his birthday in a zombie apocalypse because he had to go and be born in the month of Halloween. (I would’ve written it this year but, urgh, time. There is not enough of it.)

They’ll be written between the continuation of the Sticky series because I have a lot of ideas for that AU so. I should point out that I mean a continuation from the second chapter of Glue and not the first one.

And in between this, I need to finish of the chapter I started of Shadow House 2, try writing more of my novel and I really wanna write more of Lance’s Fury.

So, uh, does anyone want to pay me to write instead of going to work so I have time for all this?

G. Where do you think you grew the most this year?

Probably my belly.

Nah, kidding.

I think I’m... pretty much the same? I think I might be getting better at mimicking other’s styles, like I apparently did with Thames’ Child. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

Then again, I did write over 50,000 words of my novel and I never finished it so I reckon I did better than my first attempt which... eh. *shrugs*

I. What’s your favorite work you did this year? Why?

Hm.

*goes to AO3*

Hm. I quite liked Neighbour. And Glue. Which, uh, says a lot about me... Or says that I’m kinda dissatisfied with all the half-finished stories I apparently have lurking around. *sighs*

J. What are the best jokes you told this year? Any jokes you thought were funny that people didn’t catch? Vice-versa?

Uh... Hm. Heh, the one I can actually remember is the jokes they tell in the second version of Glue where it’s ‘not as if a vampire will lure me away’ or something to that affect.

Also! Any of the jokes in Thames’ Child because I managed to evoke the source material for the crossover quite well, I think. :3

K. Who have you killed this year? Why did they have to die?

... I think it best I not say... ;P

But, lemme see...

Wait, I can’t say without spoiling things! But, well, I killed Arthur and Gilbert at points because of the universe and the idea.

But, in Shadow House, wow. So many die. It’s meant to be a horror story - kinda like a horror movie where people are dying in horrible ways

N. Anything you were planning to write that never got written?

I have a document solely with Hetalia fanfic ideas which is 84 pages long. To be fair, some of them have been written but I’ve kept them in the document because I had vague ideas of what could happen next (these are usually one-shots).

I also have a separate document for every other fandom idea and that’s 14 pages long, including notes for one I’ve started. Or for one-shots I wanted to continue and haven’t gotten around to it.

P. What are your pet peeves in other people’s work?

When they don’t make it clear who’s talking.

By that, I mean, they have the person speaking named in the next paragraph for some reason. Or they close their speech but all they needed to do was take a new paragraph.

I get confused easily - don’t do that to me. :(

Q. Quote three bits of writing you read his year. Can be your writing, or not.

I’ll just use my own...

From Fortune:

"Then Arthur came to this action on his own," Alfred declared. "And he will be punished, in a way. But there is something else to note. Arthur, your toga..."

"What about it?" Arthur asked distractedly as his heart sank. He was more focussed on his previous comment. There were only two ways to punish a god: strip them of their powers and lock them away for a millennia or to kill them outright and replace them with another. Arthur would not mind dying but the idea of being unable to see Gil fulfilling his life while he was locked away would be a torture he didn't want to endure.

"Have you not noticed?" Alfred asked, a smile beginning to grow. "Look."

Without thinking, Arthur obeyed, looking down. His eyes widened when he realised what he was looking at: his toga was now white. And, now that he thought about it, he had once worn black, had he not? He stared down at himself, confused.

From Lance’s Fury:

Just as they reached the adjoining corridors, there was movement and Lance jerked away as something came towards him. Whatever it was, it was fast and probably deadly. He grasped for something to defend himself with but he didn't carry a knife and there wasn't a vast source of water around. Before he could even think of taking the water from the air around them, another movement cut in front of him and two blades clashed just a hand's breadth from his heart.

Blinking once, his eyes focussed and he found Keith wielding a knife against Pidge's dagger. Keith and Pidge struggled for a moment before they broke away. Lance staggered back, still in shock, his heart hammering in his chest. He had almost been killed... By Keith.

"Keith-" Pidge began but the other academ had focussed his attention on what he seemingly deemed the greater threat and launched himself at her, his windcrafting ruffling her hair as he used his increased speed to fight her. Thankfully, Pidge was using her metalcrafting and was just as fast, keeping up with every swing.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man," Hunk was mumbling beside Lance. "What do we do?"

From Glue:

Unable to think of an intellectual response to that, Arthur merely said, "You're ridiculous."

"And you're actually smiling – it's pretty."

Arthur sucked in a breath, startled by the comment. His heart did an odd thing where it fluttered and clenched and seemed to swell all at once. It was way too soon for him to entertain thoughts for anyone but Kiku, in his opinion – even if he had been dumped. And Kiku clearly had no intentions of returning to him. So he was on his own and free to do as he liked. Shaking his head to clear away his thoughts, Arthur turned to Alfred and held out his hand.

"I've not actually introduced myself. I'm Arthur Ki-"

He was interrupted with a loud laugh. "Dude, you totally don't need to be so formal. But, Arthur, huh? It's a cool name. Suits you."

Again, Arthur couldn't stop his lips from twitching up into a smile. "Your foam moustache suits you, too."

R. If you had to rewrite one of your stories from scratch, which one would it be? What would you do to it?

This lot. I’d make it more realistic. Like, do actual research into the porn industry? Or just make their reactions and stuff more... I dunno. I mean, it’s okay just now but I’m just gonna continue it rather than go over it.

Also, all my earlier stories on ff.net - I would scrub all the attempts at accents. Urgh. (Though, some of the stories, the accents are supposed to be exaggerated versions which would disguise them. Or something.)

S. What’s the sexiest thing you wrote this year?

....

Well: Neighbour, Glue, Thames’ Child, To An Ell Broad, Dance For Me.

T. Themes, motherfucker, do you have them? What are they?

... I don’t really get this question. Themes for what? In general? Because, if so, not really...?

Oh, wait. I think I understand it now... But I can’t think of what my stories have for themes...

U. Any stories that took a abrupt u-turn from where you thought they were going?

When I started The Keeper, I thought it was gonna be simple. It’s... not any more. Also needs to be updated. ^^”

V. Which story was the most viscerally pleasing to write? Tell us your narrative kinks.

... I honestly liked writing them all? I like the ideas finally being put down. Then they leave my head, poof! And people leave kudos and I’m like, “Wait, what was that one again?”

I can’t think of any... kinks...

W. Who are your favorite writers?

Hm, well, @zeplerfer, obviously. And... there are others but I’m just too lazy by this point to go looking for links to the ones on AO3.

X. What’s your least favorite work of this year?

Actually, one I’ve not posted yet. The first Christmas one I finished. The prompt limits you to ‘enemies in the same company’ and my mind just went ‘nope’ so what I got down was horrible. I feel bad cause it’s for an anon...

Y. Why did you write? For fun, for a friend, for acclaim?

For fun.

Also, always wanted to be an author, even if I took a course in something completely different!

And I think I’d go insane if I didn’t, to be honest.

Z. If you could choose one work and immediately finish it, what would it be? How would you end it?

Hm. This is difficult. I want all of them to be finished so everyone can find out what happens in them!

... But I’ve been thinking about A Harmless Archfiend and it would end in death and sacrifice and love.

Flipping finally! I thought I’d be at this all night! O.o I hope these answers are good enough?

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